Nazarenes in the News is a compilation of online news articles featuring Nazarene churches or church members.

Illinois church partners with hospital to feed hungry

Dixon, Illinois

(Sauk Valley Media, 4 January) KSB Hospital and the Living Well Church of the Nazarene are partnering to feed community members in need of a healthy meal.

The two kicked off the Fighting Hunger Feeding Wellness program Thursday, an initiative where extra food from the hospital cafeteria is packaged and taken to the church at 116 E. First St. before being distributed to those who might lack access to regular or nutritious food.

People can pick up the dinners from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and either take them home or eat at the church, no questions asked.

The program came about in an effort to curb food insecurity in the area, which affects nearly 13 percent of the Lee County and 21.5 percent of its children. Of those children, 30 percent aren't eligible for food assistance programs like SNAP or WIC.

For the rest of the story, click here.

Bethlehem to Nazareth to ... Topeka? 

Topeka, Kansas

(Topeka Capitol-Journal, 22 December) When you’re born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth and your father is a pastor, chances are pretty good you’re destined to become a preacher yourself.

Such is the journey taken by the Rev. Branson Roberts, pastor of Topeka’s First Church of the Nazarene, 1001 S.W. Buchanan.

Roberts, 52, was born in Bethlehem, Pa., then lived a few years as a young child in the nearby town of Nazareth, Pa., before his family moved to Washington, D.C., and later to the Boston area.

For the rest of the story, click here. 

Iowa church celebrates 100 years

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

(The Gazette, 23 December) A New Year’s Day item in the 1926 Gazette announced the formation of the “newest denomination of Cedar Rapids churches,” the Church of the Nazarene, an evangelical Christian denomination. Ten years later, the congregation would celebrate its first Christmas in a church they’d built themselves.

In its beginnings, church members initially met in the home of their first minister, the Rev. E.R. Borton, at Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street SW. By Jan. 1, 1936, they had moved to rental space in the IOOF Oriental Hall at 121 Second St. NE.

The church bought its first permanent home in 1927 — a house that had belonged to pioneer Cedar Rapids grocer, Irving C. Emery, at 400 F Ave. NW.

For the rest of the story, click here. 

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--Compiled by NCN News